nature and supernatural naturehttps://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com
Martha Warren Beckwith's listings of Jamaican plants and their associations with the spirit realmMon, 29 Jan 2018 22:26:54 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://s2.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.pngnature and supernatural naturehttps://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com
The River Mumma: Part 2 – an African connection?https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2018/01/29/the-river-mumma-part-2-an-african-connection/
https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2018/01/29/the-river-mumma-part-2-an-african-connection/#respondMon, 29 Jan 2018 10:07:43 +0000http://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/?p=448Last month’s post concerned the Jamaican water spirit, the River Mumma. This month I’m looking at where her origins may lie.

Some late 19th and early 20th century commentators on African-Jamaican folk culture such as Martha Warren Beckwith and Thomas Banbury, described the River Mumma as being a type of mermaid. There could well be some truth in this as Jamaican folk culture contained a number of British or Irish influences. Northern European mermen and mermaids were part fish, part human creatures. Mermaids were commonly described as having long hair, which, like the River Mumma, they spent hours combing. Also like the River Mumma, they could be generous to humans. Similarly, like the River Mumma, at times they were feared. Folklore writer Marc Alexander notes that sailors, in particular, viewed mermaids “as harbingers of misfortune”.

Aside from mermaids, other types of female spirit are connected with bodies of water in British folklore. In an examination of British hauntings from the Early Modern period to the present day, historian Owen Davies gives examples of links between female ghosts and rivers, lakes, and ponds. For instance, spirits described as White Ladies are associated with “deep pools and other watery places”. Although some White Ladies are believed to be the spirits of drowned women, others, such as one Shropshire White lady who “lived in a pool and would come out and dance on the green at night”. This is more akin to fairy lore rather than ghost traditions.

So there is a strong argument that the River Mumma may have British or Irish origins.

However, not all writers on African-Jamaican folk beliefs agreed with the idea that the River Mumma had her roots in the concept of the European mermaid. The American anthropologist Joseph John Williamsargued instead that her origins lay in the Ashanti belief in “the divine origin of water”.

Aside from the Ashanti, other African peoples, such as the Ifa and the Yoruba attributed deities or important spirits to bodies of water; spirits which have to be propitiated by the people using the water of those seas, rivers, streams and lakes. Yoruban water goddesses include Yemoja/ Yemanji, Ọbà and Oshun. Yemoja is often depicted as a mermaid.

yemoja

Although Thomas Banbury believed that the River Mumma arose originally from the idea of the “mermaid or water nymph of England”, he went on to mention that during the era of slavery in Jamaica that sacrifices were made to her:

“It is a well-known fact that the slaves on water-works used to persuade their overseers or masters, to sacrifice an ox at the fountain-head of the water turning the mill in times of much drought, in order to propitiate the mistress of the river, that she may cause rain and give an adequate supply of water to turn the mill. It is said a bullock was yearly killed on some sugar estates at such places for this purpose.”

So far I’ve yet to find any examples of sacrifices being offered to mermaids in British folklore. And the sacrificial offerings which appeared in Banbury’s account fits more with the idea of the River Mumma as a powerful goddess who must be propitiated than with the coquette-ish European mermaid. So whilst the River Mumma may contain elements of British mermaid lore, I feel that her roots lie more in Africa than in Europe.

Next time….
Back to terra firma with a look at the mysterious Mammy plant.

]]>https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2018/01/29/the-river-mumma-part-2-an-african-connection/feed/0hrsparkes160px-Clonfert_mermaid_crop341px-Yemoja_Abayomi_BarberThe River Mumma – part 1https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/12/24/the-river-mumma-part-1/
https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/12/24/the-river-mumma-part-1/#commentsSun, 24 Dec 2017 11:58:13 +0000http://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/?p=444For this month’s entry the watery theme continues with a look at the River Mumma (aka the Rubba Missis, Fair Maid, River Maid or Sea Mahmy). Martha Warren Beckwith described this Jamaican spirit as a kind of mermaid who inhabited bodies of water, sitting on the banks at midday, combing her long black hair. George Parkes, one of Beckwith’s African-Jamaican informants, told her that River Mummas “live in deep pools away from where people pass. There may be more than one in a pool, but they all look alike. The waters were made for them, and if you catch one the rivers would dry up”.

Parkes said that he had seen a River Mumma himself at a wide pool near St Ann’s Bay. She and two other Mummas had been living there since “ancient times”. Beckwith heard of River Mummas living in the Black River, the Rio Grande, the Great River, the Cabaritta and the Rio Cobra. Writing in the 1960s, 35 years after Beckwith’s Jamaican fieldwork, American folklorist MacEdward Leach stated that the “most famous… sea mahmy” lived “in the great blue hole near Port Antonio.”

Aside from her Jamaican informants, Martha Beckwith gleaned information about the River Mumma from the writings of Thomas Banbury. Banbury called the Mumma the “Rubba Missis” and noted that sometimes her comb had been found at fountainheads. Myalists would take food to the river for the Rubba Missis and performed songs and dances there in her honour. Banbury also mentioned that sacrifices were made to the Rubba Missis.

“It is a well-known fact that the slaves on water-works used to persuade their overseers or masters, to sacrifice an ox at the fountain-head of the water turning the mill in times of much drought, in order to propitiate the mistress of the river, that she may cause rain and give an adequate supply of water to turn the mill. It is said a bullock was yearly killed on some sugar estates at such places for this purpose.’”

Thomas Banbury was writing at the end of the nineteenth century but much of his material concerns folk beliefs from nearly 40 years earlier. In Neither Led Nor Driven (2004) which examines African-Jamaican culture in the early 20th century, Brian Moore and Michele Johnson elaborate on the reverence in which River Mummas were held during that period:

“In some communities, where the river mumma made her appearance, people did not eat the fish that came from those rivers, because they were believed to be the children of the river goddess and whoever ate them would suffer.”

Martha Beckwith too had been told that the fish from bodies of water where River Mummas were supposed to live were considered “sacred”. However, George Parkes disagreed with the notion that River Mummas were worshipped, saying that “they can do nothing for people. They cannot talk, and they disappear the moment one sees them”.

His view appears to be an isolated one as other commentators often mentioned the River Mumma’s ability to interact with people. Banbury stated that people could come to harm if they looked into the Mumma’s eyes and anthropologist George Eaton Simpson found a number of beliefs that River Mummas (who he called “River Maids”) could cause misfortune. Conversely, they could also assist people. For example, to gain the River Mumma’s aid in wreaking vengeance on an enemy, a person was instructed to concentrate on the Mumma and then fill “his mouth with river water” and walk:

“downstream in the river, thinking constantly of his enemy. He spits the water in his mouth into the river, and gets out of the river on the same side he entered the stream. After coming out, he makes a wish, the wish being that every morsel of food his enemy eats and every drop of water he drinks “should be evil germs to him”’

In addition, the River Mumma could help people through her capacity to heal. In one example, Simpson was told that if a stone from a river which contained the spirit of the Mumma was placed in sacred water, it was said “to increase the curative powers of the water”.

Next time…
I delve deeper to try and locate where the watery origins of the River Mumma lie.

]]>https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/12/24/the-river-mumma-part-1/feed/1hrsparkes320px-Wildlife_on_Black_River,_JamaicaWater Weed (Medilia gracilis)https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/11/16/water-weed-medilia-gracilis/
https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/11/16/water-weed-medilia-gracilis/#commentsThu, 16 Nov 2017 09:30:19 +0000http://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/?p=426Water weed (medilia gracilis) the star of this month’s post continues the theme of Jamaican plants being utilised to keep away unwanted spirits. In her listings of Jamaican flora, Martha Warren Beckwith wrote that water weed was a type of water marigold “commonly used at night when something seems to be abroad in the house”. It could be burned or mixed with rum and “kept in a bottle to rub the face and especially the back of the neck”.

Water weed was also employed to prevent the duppy of the deceased mooching around their former dwelling place if they had died in there. In such instances, Beckwith was told by her Jamaican informants that water weed should be burned “to run away the spirits”.

Unlike a number of Jamaican plants used to keep duppies at bay such as rosemary and spirit weed , Beckwith reported that water weed didn’t have a strong odour. However, she speculated it may smell more pungent when burned.

Next time….
The aquatic theme continues but this time we move away from plant life to investigate the mysterious River Mumma.

Sources
Martha Warren Beckwith, “Jamaica Ethnobotany” in Martha Warren Beckwith, with music recorded in the field by Helen H. Roberts, Jamaica Folklore (New York: The American Folk-Lore Society, 1928), p. 22.

As Halloween is looming (), I thought I’d look at spirit weed (Eryngium foetidum, L.), another plant from Martha Warren Beckwith’s “Jamaican Ethnobotany” (1928) which has properties believed to keep evil entities at bay. Beckwith wrote that “[b]ecause of its pungent odor” spirit weed is universally employed like ‘Rosemary’ and ‘See-me-contract’ to ‘drive away duppies’”.

Zora Neale Hurston, who was investigating Jamaican folk life in the 1930s, was told that if you drank tea made from a branch of spirit weed, “duppies can’t touch you. You can walk into a room where all kinds of evil and duppies are and be perfectly safe.”

However, spirit weed can potentially do more than act as a means to stop bothersome duppies. In their dictionary of Jamaican Herbs and Medicinal Plants, L. Mike Henry and K. Sean Harris mention a different supernatural power attributed to the plant – its ability to “make the person who chews the root invisible”. They note how Jamaican Maroons used spirit weed-induced invisibility as a weapon in their conflicts with the British during the 17th and early 18th centuries. British soldiers reported that that it seemed as if “the trees were fighting them, because they could see the leaves moving and hear the rustling but could see no one.” Whilst I remain open-minded as to whether spirit weed can or could actually induce invisibility, the Maroons were extremely skilled in the art of camouflage, utilising leaves and branches and other forms of foliage to blend into the landscape. Therefore, they may have appeared “invisible” to the British soldiers simply through the effectiveness of their disguise.

As with a few of the plants listed by Martha Beckwith there is some dispute about the alternate names for spirit weed. Beckwith said that it was also known as parrot weed. However, in the Dictionary of Jamaican English Cassidy and Le Page say that this was a mistake on Beckwith’s part. The “Common Names” database of the Natural History Museum of Jamaica (http://nhmj-ioj.org.jm/ioj_wp/botany/common-name/ gives the common name for spirit weed as “fit weed” or “fit bush”.

An early twentieth century article on Jamaican plants used in folk medicine by Morris Steggarda, contemporaneous with Beckwith’s research, also has “fit weed” as another name for spirit weed and modern botanists G.F. Asprey and Phyllis Thornton categorise it as such in their article “The Medicinal Powers of Jamaican Plants”. They go on to describe how:

“A decoction of the plant is used for colds and fits in children. The plant is rubbed on the body for fainting fits and convulsions. Since it is said to have magical properties in connection with protection from duppies (ghosts) this may explain its use in convulsions, fainting and hysteria for which it has long been employed in Jamaica”.

Next time….
Another plant used to keep away spirits of the dead – water weed

]]>https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/10/30/spirit-weed-eryngium-foetidum-l/feed/1hrsparkes256px-Eryngium_foetidum_L__(6674360625)Parsley (Petroselinum crispum)https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/10/05/parsley-petroselinum-crispum/
https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/10/05/parsley-petroselinum-crispum/#respondThu, 05 Oct 2017 13:59:37 +0000http://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/?p=375As mentioned previously, this month’s post is taking a little holiday from Jamaican plant lore. Instead I pay a visit to my native Warwickshire to look at some sinister beliefs surrounding parsley (Petroselinum crispum). Just as a number of Jamaican plants have associations with the more negative spectrum of the spirit world, parsley too has links with a harmful entity. In fact, with the most negative spirit himself (in Christian belief at least), the Devil.

The folklore scholar C.S. Wharton found that in South Warwickshire it was held that “Only wicked people can make parsley grow” and that parsley goes down to hell and returns up again through the earth nine times.

The association of parsley with the Devil seems countrywide in England. A common theme is that it has to be planted on Good Friday, particularly between the hours of twelve and 3 pm, the time of Christ’s crucifixion, as during this period the Devil “is powerless and preoccupied”. Other cultivation tips linking parsley with Old Nick include pouring boiling water on the ground to “deter Satan” and having to plant three lots of seed: “one for the gardener and two for the Devil”.

Why does parsley have these associations with Beelzebub? One reason may be that the plant can be difficult to germinate. The fact that parsley seeds lie in the ground a long time before showing any sign of life may have resulted in the belief that it had burrowed down to visit Satan in his realm deep in the bowels of the earth.

Another reason could be the influence of the Classical belief that parsley is an unlucky plant associated with death. In Greek legend parsley first grew from the blood of the young son of King Lycurgus. The child, Archemorus, whose name means ‘the forerunner of death’, was killed by a snake whilst his nurse was distracted. In Discovering the Folklore of Plants, Margret Baker notes how the ancient Greeks and Romans adorned tombs with parsley and “wreaths were worn by victors of the funeral games” held to commemorate the dead.

Parsley was introduced into Britain from the Mediterranean so its unlucky reputation may have travelled here along with the original plants.

Next time….
It’s a return to Beckwith’s Jamaican plant lists and, as it’s the run up to Hallowe’en it’s got to be something ghost-related. so I’ll be looking at how Spirit Weed can help stop bothersome beings.

]]>https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/10/05/parsley-petroselinum-crispum/feed/0hrsparkesparsleyWangla (sesame indicum)https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/08/03/wangla-sesame-indicum/
https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/08/03/wangla-sesame-indicum/#commentsThu, 03 Aug 2017 08:21:49 +0000http://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/?p=358In her writings on Jamaican ethnobotany, Martha Warren Beckwith never gave the Latin name for wangla but according to the Natural History Museum of Jamaica’s plant names database it is sesamum indicum or sesame. In Black Roadways: A Study of Jamaica Folk Life (1929), she noted that the plant was believed to have “Obeah powers” which aided in the detection of theft. If a person had stolen plants from another’s provision grounds and had left a footprint, the victim should:

“take up the earth carefully in a leaf, measure it with a spoon, and put “four-thirds” as much wangla seed with it and put the whole lot into a pot upon the fire. Call the name of the person you think is the thief and if you are right, as many “bumps” will appear on his foot as there are seeds that “pop.””

An alternate method could be used if the thief’s identity was known. Any wangla planted in the provision ground should be hit whilst calling out the thief’s name. This too would bring out bumps on his or her leg. Simon Falconer, one of Beckwith’s informants, told her that the only way the thief could prevent this happening was to have previously eaten some wangla seed.

Thomas Banbury also wrote of some very unpleasant effects that wangla could wreak on thieves. In Banbury’s account, if a thief walked along a road on which a mix of wangla, salt and pepper had be burned, then he or she would contract “Jamaica leprosy”.

Next time….
“Nature & Supernatural Nature” goes on its hols. But that doesn’t mean slouching on a sun lounger, slathered in factor 50 and sipping cocktails. Instead, we’re off to Warwickshire, England, to investigate why only bad people can grow parsley.

]]>https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/08/03/wangla-sesame-indicum/feed/1hrsparkes201px-Sesame_(PSF)Gourdshttps://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/07/13/gourds/
https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/07/13/gourds/#respondThu, 13 Jul 2017 08:15:18 +0000http://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/?p=327Gourds have a number of connections with African-Jamaican spiritual practices: as musical instruments, as a form of oracle and as receptacles for charms. In Black Roadways (1929), Martha Warren Beckwith wrote of how the Myal men in the Cockpits area of Jamaica used rattles, called “shakeys” alongside bon, panay and gombay drums to accompany the Myal dance to summon the spirits of the dead. She described a shakey as consisting of “a gourd fastened to the end of a stick and filled with the shot-like seed of the wild canna or with small stones. Such a rattle is often reported from Africa as an accompaniment of war or medicine dances”.

Writing on Jonkonnu festivities, Beckwith mentioned about the gourd rattle being used in the parade, along with other musical instruments such as the “African Gombay drum”, all of which had associations with the invocation of spirits.

Beckwith also cited the 17th century naturalist, Hans Sloane, who had observed how such rattles were:

”used as fetishes by the Indians of the Mosquito coast… The Indians adorned them with feathers and “planted” them among their houses. Such an object was called a maraca. After feeding for thirteen of fourteen days it would cause the roots to grow and would ‘answer’ questions”.

In addition to being employed as percussion instruments and oracles, gourds were also used as receptacles for Obeah practitioners’ charms. Writing at the end of the nineteenth century, Thomas Banbury detailed the items such charms could contain. These included “pieces of broken bottles, cats’ or serpents’ teeth, nails, and bones, pins, needles, vials, pieces of cloth, &c”. The Obeah person would then recite an incantation over the charm. It was now ready to be buried in the yard or path of the intended victim. If the person stepped on it, the charm was believed to transfer its power to their body.

Next time….
The Obeah powers of Wangla are under the spotlight

Sources
Martha Warren Beckwith, Black Roadways: A Study of Jamaica Folk Life (reprint, New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969, of orig. edn, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1929), p. 148, pp. 212-213.
Martha Warren Beckwith, “Jamaica Ethnobotany” in Martha Warren Beckwith, with music recorded in the field by Helen H. Roberts, Jamaica Folklore (New York: The American Folk-Lore Society, 1928), p. 12.
Rev. Thomas Banbury, Jamaica Superstitions; or the Obeah Book: A Complete Treatise of the Absurdities Believed in by the People of the Island (Kingston: Mortimer Co. De Souza, 1894), p. 6, 7.
Image credits: picture by Tmwatha – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFashion_Calabash.jpg
N.B. Unfortunately Beckwith doesn’t give the Latin name of the type of gourd which she is referring to. This makes finding an image of a specific plant difficult as there are a large number of species of gourd. Therefore I’ve used an image of some African gourd rattles which I think may have been made on similar lines to the Jamaican ones.

]]>https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/07/13/gourds/feed/0hrsparkesafrican calabash rattlesHow to remove lizards if they become stuck in your armhttps://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/05/02/how-to-remove-lizards-if-they-become-stuck-in-your-arm/
https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/05/02/how-to-remove-lizards-if-they-become-stuck-in-your-arm/#respondTue, 02 May 2017 09:26:44 +0000http://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/?p=293In my last blog entry I mentioned how anthropologist Martha Warren Beckwith wondered if the use of a plant with vermifugal properties such as Worm-weed gave rise to the idea that animals and other foreign bodies could be removed from under a person’s skin by Obeah practitioners.

In Black Roadways (1929), Beckwith wrote of the technique of Obeah pulling; i.e. removing an object or creature from patient’s body as a cure for their malady. Beckwith’s description is almost entirely based on the writings of the African-Jamaican clergyman, Thomas Banbury. In my post on Calabashes I looked briefly at Banbury’s account of Obeah pulling where calabash cups were placed on a patient’s body to draw out the foreign body which infected him. Banbury went on to describe how the skin was scored with a knife to facilitate the removal of the object and the practitioner/ healer could also suck the foreign matter out using his or her mouth rather than a cup.

Items removed by this method included “pieces of glass bottles, nails, pins, needles, the teeth of cats, serpents, bits of bones, shells, small vials, lizards, spiders and other small insects.”
Prior to the procedure, some practitioners would consult an item called an amber. Beckwith described ambers as “fetich” objects employed by Myalists or Obeah practitioners. In some areas an amber bead was used, in others a glass marble.

An example of using an amber in Obeah-pulling is illustrated in the excerpts of song lyrics from the early 20th century collected by Beckwith shown below. The first song came from James White, described by Beckwith as having “a reputation for knowledge of herb medicines and of songs to raise the dead” and the second song’s lyrics were given to Beckwith by Swabe, the lead dancer in Jonkonnu ceremonies in Prospect. The eagle-eyed among you may notice a few different spellings of “amber” – I’m using both variations as this is how the songs appear in Beckwith’s text.

]]>https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/05/02/how-to-remove-lizards-if-they-become-stuck-in-your-arm/feed/0hrsparkes320px-Jamaican_Gray_(stripefoot)_anole_(Anolis_lineatopus)Worm-weed (Chenopodium ambrosioides, L.)https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/worm-weed-chenopodium-ambrosioides-l/
https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/worm-weed-chenopodium-ambrosioides-l/#commentsFri, 07 Apr 2017 08:15:15 +0000http://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/?p=271In both Black Roadways and “Jamaica Ethnobotany”, Martha Warren Beckwith noted that Worm-weed (AKA “See-me-contract”/ “Semi contrac”) was used to drive duppies away. This could be done by either rubbing the leaves on your body or scattering them about your house.

Beckwith also referred to the plant’s medicinal usage in the treatment for intestinal worms citing an eighteenth century physician, Patrick Browne:

“Browne uses ‘worm-weed’… to produce an effect like opium… After such a dose he gives an ordinary purge, after which the worms are discharged… Such experiences… may account for the belief in the removal of animals from a patient’s body into a bottle which forms so common a practice in obeah today”.

This idea of worm-weed as a vermifuge appears in modern Jamaican folk medicine. Its emetic and anti-inflammatory properties are also used in remedies for arthritis, constipation and worms.

Would the plant’s purgative qualities have influenced ideas that it could also dispel evil spirits?

Martha Warren Beckwith, “Jamaica Ethnobotany” in Martha Warren Beckwith, with music recorded in the field by Helen H. Roberts, Jamaica Folklore (New York: The American Folk-Lore Society, 1928), p. 26, 30.

]]>https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/worm-weed-chenopodium-ambrosioides-l/feed/1hrsparkesWormweedInterlude: International Women’s Day/ Martha Warren Beckwithhttps://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/03/08/interlude-international-womens-day-martha-warren-beckwith/
https://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2017/03/08/interlude-international-womens-day-martha-warren-beckwith/#respondWed, 08 Mar 2017 07:00:28 +0000http://natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/?p=253Today, Nature and Supernatural Nature is taking some time out from its investigation into the spirit lore associated with Jamaican plants to celebrate International Women’s Day https://www.internationalwomensday.com/and pay tribute to the woman who provided the inspiration for this blog, Martha Warren Beckwith

Martha Warren Beckwith (1879-1959) was an American anthropologist, folklorist and academic who is perhaps best known today for her work on Hawaii. However, her Jamaican research was pioneering as not only did she focus on the Caribbean when it was considered an unfashionable area for study by many anthropologists but she also took African-Jamaican folk religions seriously. She was writing at a time when Jamaican folk stories, song and dance were starting to be celebrated but the island’s folk religions and spiritual beliefs were still denigrated by many commentators.

Beckwith’s Jamaican fieldwork, which took place between 1919 and 1924, resulted in a number of articles and the books, Black Roadways: A Study of Jamaican Folk Life (1929), Jamaica Proverbs (1925), Jamaican Folklore (1928) and Jamaica Anansi Stories (1924). Her Caribbean research influenced Melville Herskovits, who himself went on to influence a generation of “American anthropologists who studied the Caribbean, including Katherine Dunham, Zora Neale Hurston, and George Eaton Simpson” (Forde and Paton, p. 17)

Beckwith was not only ground-breaking in her approach to her Caribbean fieldwork. She also played an important role in the development of folklore studies in academia. In 1920 Beckwith became research Professor of the Folklore Foundation and Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Vassar College, making her America’s first chair of folklore. In the early twentieth century, folklore studies at university level were based in either anthropology or literature departments. Beckwith disagreed with this, considering folklore to be a subject worthy of study in its own right and, under the auspices of Vassar’s Folklore Foundation, Beckwith was able to bring literature and anthropology together in the study of folklore as a distinct subject.

So on this International Women’s Day I’m raising a glass to all those who work to make women’s lives better and also to the inspirational Martha Warren Beckwith

Next time…

Normal service will be resumed as I look at the duppy prevention and vermifugal qualities of Worm-weed.

Sources

Maarit Forde and Diana Paton, “Introduction” to Obeah and Other Powers: The Politics of Caribbean Religion and Healing (Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2012).